THE US FEDERAL FRAMEWORK FOR RESEARCH ON ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS AND AN ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH PROGRAMS SUPPORTED DURING FISCAL YEAR 1996

The potential health and ecological effects of endocrine disrupting ch emicals has become a high visibility environmental issue. The 1990s ha ve witnessed a growing concern, both on the part of the scientific com munity and the public, that environmental chemicals may be causing wid espread effects in humans and in a variety of fish and wildlife specie s. This growing concern led the Committee on the Environment and Natur al Resources (CENR) of the National Science and Technology Council to identify the endocrine disrupter issue as a major research initiative in early 1995 and subsequently establish an ad hoc Working Group on En docrine Disrupters. The objectives of the working group are to 1) deve lop a planning framework for federal research related to human and eco logical health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals: 2) conduct a n inventory of ongoing federal research programs; and 3) identify rese arch gaps and develop a coordinated interagency plan to address priori ty research needs. This communication summarizes the activities of the federal government in defining a common framework for planning an end ocrine disruptor research program and in assessing the status of the c urrent effort. After developing the research framework and compiling a n inventory of active research projects supported by the federal gover nment in fiscal year 1996, the CENR working group evaluated the curren t federal effort by comparing the ongoing activities with the research needs identified in the framework The analysis showed that the federa l government supports considerable research on human health effects, e cological effects, and exposure assessment, with a predominance of act ivity occurring under human health effects. The analysis also indicate s that studies on reproductive development and carcinogenesis are more prevalent than studies on neurotoxicity and immunotoxicity, that mamm als (mostly laboratory animals) are the main species under study, and that chlorinated dibenzodioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls are the most commonly studied chemical classes. Comparison of the inventory wi th the research needs should allow identification of underrepresented research areas in need of attention.